2025 GAME 4 REVIEW: INCOMPETENCE ALL OVER

Oklahoma 24  Auburn 17.  I wonder if Auburn will ever win a big road game or any big game frankly ever again.  I mean Hugh Freeze's incompetent head coaching is bad enough but when the refs incompetence appears to be even worse than his what is the point???  The level of factual incompetence by the refs in this game is unbelievable.  That is not an opinion but of course nobody cares.  Auburn and their fans won't bring enough heat so they will continue to get screwed.  Meanwhile it is an ABSOLUTE 100% FACT, there is no way that Auburn's fumble return for a touchdown would be overturned if they had been BAMA, GEORGIA, LSU, OR TEXAS.  Heck if it would have been Oklahoma they would not have overturned it. 

Next, there is no way that Oklahoma's blatant cheating "pass to the guy who pretended to run off the field" play would have stood against BAMA, GEORGIA, LSU OR TEXAS but nobody cares about the rest of the schools getting screwed by these incompetent refs. 

I mean just GOOGLE IT...  

"In NCAA football, passing to a player who is pretending to sub off is considered a deception using the substitution process and results in an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. The rules are designed to prevent "hide-out" plays that use fake or pretended substitutions to gain an unfair advantage."  

 There is absolutely NO WAY NO WAY NO WAY that play should have ever been allowed to stand.  This particular play and call prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the refs in this game today are COMPLETELY INCOMPETENT.  There was plenty more of normal SEC ref incompetence on top of all that like blatant pass interference not being called and oceans of holding calls on both sides.  The games are almost unwatchable the reffing is SO BAD.  Unless you are a blue blood like the four schools mentioned above you will get screwed and nobody will care or do anything about it.  

However there is one set of calls the refs did get right and show the incompetence on the coaching side and those were the ILLEGAL PROCEDURE calls and Auburn had plenty, many at critical times.  That is just the tip of the iceberg for Auburn's offense.  Anyone who reads my stuff might think I am negative but everything I have written about Auburn's passing game in my last three posts was proved COMPLETELY TRUE tonight.  I wish I was wrong.  I wish Hugh Freeze was not such a poor coach.  However he is unfortunately.  I mean for every single good play Auburn had there were way more bad calls, poor execution, and HORRIBLY TIMED PROCEDURE PENALTIES.

Throw in Auburn's BOTTOM OF THE CONFERENCE SPECIAL TEAMS and you have your typical Hugh Freeze loss.  I mean Auburn's special teams gaffes in this one were almost comical.  It seemed like there were holding calls or blocks in the back on I think all of Auburn's kickoff returns which had the offense starting off in a hole multiple times.  There was also the punt that was fielded at the two yard line???!!!???  There was the standard Hugh Freeze team critical missed field goal (add to this fact he knew his main kicker was very sick and did not do enough in the transfer portal this past offseason).  The absolute topper in this game though was the early botched punt that gave Oklahoma the short field to run their cheating sub play for their first touchdown. 

I will also point out AGAIN as I have the LAST THREE WEEKS that Auburn quarterback Jackson Arnold continues to hold the ball too long much of the time.  That is coaching.  Arnold has his moments but along with holding the ball too long, he missed several key passes and was still slightly late on some of the big throws that were completed.  On top of that the play-calling overall is just not consistent.  There just seems to be something slightly off on every drive when Auburn is not playing a cupcake, and many times when they are.  I think everyone watching is seeing this.  This all leads to what I have felt all week and that is a COMPLETE LACK OF CONFIDENCE IN THIS COACHING STAFF.

After this disaster against a very overrated Oklahoma team I just do not think this coaching staff is capable of leading Auburn to an upset over a really good team, EVER.  I am wondering if Auburn is now permanently in the SEC's second row after being one of the few SEC teams to win a national championship in the last twenty years.  I am wondering if Auburn will ever have a really good team again?  You say I am crazy?  Since playing for the national championship in 2013 Auburn literally has three big memorable wins and those are 2017 Georgia, 2017 Bama, and 2019 Bama.  I do not believe Auburn has one other win in the last twelve years against a team that finished in the top ten.  

Texas A&M is now up next.  Auburn has beaten A&M several times but I think the Aggies are better than Oklahoma this season and it is on the road so that pretty much guarantees it is out of a Hugh Freeze-coached team's reach.  Like this week and pretty much any week under Freeze I have absolutely zero confidence that Auburn can show up and just play good solid well-coached football.  I just see more of what we saw this week.  I am betting it will be another disappointing mix of good plays and performances overshadowed by a larger number of bad calls, poor execution, and of course crucial procedure penalties.  Auburn has become everyone's favorite "wrestling heel", the opponent you get excited about and know you are going to get the win against. 

2025 GAME 3 REVIEW: The Hangover Before The Storm

Auburn 31 South Alabama 15.  The Auburn football Tigers finished their preseason on a very blah note yesterday with another mediocre effort.  This is the latest in what is now a long line of blah games coached by Hugh Freeze but it was a win.  There are always positives in a win and the biggest one for Auburn remains an improved offensive line.  It has taken the entire college football system being turned upside down for Auburn to finally find some way to bring in legitimate offensive tackles but it has happened.  Auburn rushed for almost 200 yards again and running back Jeremiah Cobb put up his second 100 yard game in a row.  Those are definite things Auburn can build on and will need coming up.

Again Auburn won but I think you cannot help but compare teams watching this game and the others yesterday.  Can this Auburn team do better than the previous five Auburn teams and win more conference games?  Again the talent level has been upgraded which gives Auburn a chance but has it been upgraded enough and what level is our coaching?  I will start with the defense.  I think D.J. Durkin is a pretty good coach and that we have a decent defensive staff.  I think we have decent talent on the defense with a couple of special players like Keldric Faulk.  I think that is the consensus from just about all Auburn fans.  The problem is the results so far tell a different story...

Baylor ran up 500 yards on this defense and South Alabama got over 300.  I know it was not a big game and they will be better but South Alabama seem to impose their will many times in the game yesterday.  The defense ended up making the plays needed but overall after those two games Auburn fans cannot feel great about this defense.  I mean Baylor appears to be a good team and South Alabama definitely a solid one but giving up over 800 yards?  I just hear warning bells going off especially with South Alabama rushing for almost 150 yards.  This Auburn defense is simply going to have to play a lot better starting next week for Auburn to even have a chance at some big wins. 

Next up I will just repeat again what I have in the last two posts...  Auburn's passing game is just not clicking on all cylinders.  Million dollar man Cam Coleman even though he had a touchdown yesterday has simply not been an impact player.  Eric Singleton has been and appears to be worthy of his hype but Auburn still cannot get it to him enough and he maybe hurt.  Quarterback Jackson Arnold appears to be an upgrade over Payton Thorne but still has issues.  The main one that popped up to me yesterday was watching him execute a perfect play action drop back and have plenty of time... and not throw the ball at the right time or in rhythm.  That just screams coaching to me.  

The opposite would be Tennessee who passed the ball courageously yesterday and only lost because they could not convert a makeable field goal at the end.  They have a good passing game though.  That is what a good college passing game looks like.  You have to have the coaching and Auburn appears to be drastically lacking there.  Auburn's very expensive high rated wide receivers not only dropped several yesterday but either they or Jackson Arnold are doing something wrong since he won't pull the trigger many times.  One of the reasons again appears to be that the coaches have overreacted to Thorne's bad decisions last season and, as I have already opined, made Jackson Arnold scared to make a mistake. 

The offense just looks like an old high school offense passing-wise and Jackson Arnold is just not getting the coaching to pass successfully.  Auburn is a better team than the last four years but with these issues in the passing game I just am not sure how successful this team will be in a tougher-than-ever SEC.  The next three weeks look daunting to say the least.  Oklahoma and Texas A&M are up the next two weeks.  Oklahoma looks to be much improved over last season and Texas A&M just won in South Bend.  I do not think this Auburn team could have done that.  Georgia comes in after that and I sure do not see Auburn playing as well as Tennessee did.

I hope I am just being "negative", I hope Hugh Freeze and this Auburn team prove me wrong however I think most of us have watched good teams and they look like good teams in most all their games.  I think most of us have seen well-coached passing offenses and this just does not appear to be one.  This Auburn team can run the ball but it has not shown a consistent passing offense nor a tough defense.  Most of all this coaching staff has just not shown the mettle to win big games.  Let me repeat that, this coaching staff has just not shown the mettle to win big games.  That does not bode well for next week nor the season.  However Auburn is 3-0 and has a lot of good players.  Please prove me wrong. 

2025 GAME 2 REVIEW: Better Late than Never...

 

Auburn 42 Ball State 3. I apologize for the super late post. The week just got away from me. I initially put this off because I did not know what to say about this game. I guess first is Auburn picked a good cupcake. Ball State is one of the worst college football teams in the country, period. They were not even in the same hemisphere talent-wise as Auburn. The stats bore it all out. Auburn had almost 500 yards of offense. Jackson Arnold and Jeremiah Cobb had career days and the defense held Ball State to under 100 total yards and should have had a shutout if not for an absolutely horrendous call. I mean from the stat line Auburn was nearly perfect...

However while the stat line looked good for the offense I think everyone who watched the same noticed some issues. The offense was just not sharp on several drives in the first half. There is still just something wrong with this offense. I think some of the issues are Jackson Arnold. He looks like a baseball thrower to me that does not have a lot of touch but I think it is more coaching. I have the same questions I had last week, how can Auburn being in the second year with this coaching staff and this offense not look sharper? Auburn has massively upgraded at all positions and their talent is showing through but there is still something wrong with this offense.  

Auburn gets one more warm-up game and then we will see where this team is really at. I have finally settled on the number I think Hugh Freeze has to win this season. Assuming now he beats South Alabama and Mercer, I think with the talent on this roster he now has to win at least FIVE conference games. That will give Auburn its first winning conference record since 2019. I would hope one of those is Georgia or Bama but either way I think that is what this coaching staff has to achieve this season and that is assuming Auburn will have some injuries as well. That happens to everyone every football season and I am sick of the coaches and the homer web sites using it as an all-encompassing excuse.

Around the SEC... My biggest takeaway from watching the SEC this season is that NIL has really helped even the playing field, as in letting other conferences and teams catch up to the SEC. Big bad Bama and Georgia who utterly dominated for quite a few years (when they were doing NIL and everyone else was not) now look a lot closer to everyone else. I hate a lot of things about NIL and all that is going on in college football but that is one of the good things. I think Texas is obviously quite a bit overrated but with their fixed easy conference schedule they have a cakewalk to the SEC Championship game. I think LSU is also overrated as always but that was a huge win last week at Clemson. There is no denying that.  

I also want to give huge props to Mississippi State for beating a ranked Arizona State team. That was a big win for State after everything they have been through the last few seasons. Also while I do not think Michigan is that good I think that was also a big win for Oklahoma. It was good to see "too cool for school, I know everything" Billy Napier gag another one at Florida. Just when it looked like he was safe, he is right back on the hot seat... Elsewhere Kentucky looks to be the bottom of the conference while you have a big jumble of solid-to-good teams in the middle. A few of those teams will have the ball bounce right for them and have a great season and a few will stumble and fall. This coming weekend will kind of unofficially kick off the race with a slew of big conference match-ups. Looking forward to it...

2025 GAME 1 REVIEW: Good Game but...

Auburn 38 Baylor 24.  In a stunning departure from the absolute sheer stupidity shown by the Auburn football head coach last season, the Tigers actually stuck to the running game and got the win.  I am glad it took "experts" to come in after the season and tell the six million dollar man coaching Auburn what to do in games like this.  New quarterback Jackson Arnold rushed for over 100 yards while running backs Damari Alston and Jeremiah Cobb both had 84 and 74 yards rushing respectively.  That of course means that Auburn's upgraded-through-the-portal offensive line showed an immediate return on investment.  Offensive tackles Xavier Chaplin and Mason Murphy appear to be much better than any other offensive tackles seen around the plains for the last decade or more.  That in and of itself might be the biggest positive to come out of this weekend.

Overall, Auburn was just better at about every position than Baylor except when it came to passing the football.  Now again this game Auburn did the right thing and just got the win however the biggest concern for me coming out of this game is the Auburn passing game on both sides of the ball.  Lets look at the defense first...  I mean I think D.J. Durkin is a pretty good coach but dang this was some epically bad defense.  It sure was a shock even for all of us that were ignoring all of the Auburn pay-sites basically saying how great every Auburn player is for months.  I mean all of these guys have carried on all summer telling us how great the line is, how great the linebackers are, and how this might be the best secondary ever at Auburn...  

Lets just go to the numbers...  Baylor quarterback Sawyer Robertson was 27 of 48 for 419 YARDS and three touchdowns with no interceptions.  I mean yes Auburn did get some crucial stops but I will have to say Baylor sure seemed to call some horrible plays inside the ten yard line thank goodness.  The defense did keep Baylor under 100 yards rushing but is that as big an accomplishment when they pass for over 400???  I think across the board everyone thought the defense would be much better.  Hopefully they improve and I do not think many of the SEC teams ahead on the schedule can throw the ball as good as Baylor or at least I hope not.  The improvement of this defense will be a major factor in how the rest of the season goes for the Tigers.

On offense uh running-wise, Auburn was almost as potent as Baylor was through the air as the Tigers rushed for 300 yards shredding the Baylor defense who appeared dead set on not giving Auburn the deep ball.  However does Baylor have that good a defense where they can just take away the Auburn passing game?  I just do not think so as I bet we will see Baylor in many high-scoring Big 12 games throughout the rest of this season.  With that said though Auburn barely managed 100 yards passing with massively hyped returning wide receivers Cam Coleman and Malcolm Simmons only getting one catch each.  Monster wide receiver signee Eric Singleton got three but had twenty yards...  I mean yes I am very glad Auburn did what it had to do to win the game but the passing game is still a flashing red light.

Quarterback Jackson Arnold did not look comfortable in the pocket.  He did not make many good passes and he look scared ****less to make a mistake and throw an interception.  I know it is just the first game and all of that but this guy is not a true freshman.  I think he should have been better.  Most of us have watched enough football that even if a quarterback is having a bad game you can see if he is brave in the pocket, if he throws a nice ball, etc...  I did not see any of that with Arnold.  I also think that his success running in this game will encourage the bad habit of running every time he feels pressure.  I see better SEC teams shutting down most of his running.  Also why have we carried on and on and on and paid so much money for all of these wide receivers to not have a passing game good enough against BAYLOR to get them the ball?

The answer appears to be the same as it has been the last decade at Auburn.  Our head coach is an ex-high school coach who is a good salesman and sermonizer but simply does not have the ability to teach or implement modern football passing concepts.  Freeze is a little different as he usually throws a lot of short passes but the simple fact that we could not get any of these really good wide receivers the ball in this game kind of speaks for itself.  However again I would much rather be talking about getting better after a win than after a loss (just ask the other set of fans in this state).  Auburn and Freeze really had to win this game and they did.  Everyone, offense and defense, now has the chance to take to the next two weeks to improve as a team and they better because back-to-back road games at Oklahoma and Texas A&M are looming and we will find out a whole lot more about this team then.